Word Power  

On December 13, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Luke 4: 1 – 13

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.  And He ate nothing during those days; and when they had ended, He became hungry.  And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”  And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”  And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment.  And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore if you worship before me, it shall all be Yours.”  And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”  And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘He will give His angels charge concerning You to guard you.’ And ‘On their hands they will bear You up lest You strike Your foot against a stone.’”  And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”  And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

This is an important story because it shows how the devil tempts and how Jesus fought those temptations.  Ephesians 6: 17 says that the weapon we have is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  Jesus, being our model, demonstrated how to defeat the enemy.  I want you to see and recognize the weapon of His warfare.  Jesus defeated Satan with the Word of God.  Notice that after Jesus fended off two of Satan’s attempts with the Word, Satan quoted from the 91st Psalm to try to deceive Jesus.  But Jesus knew the Word.  He knew it so well that he could see the perversion of the word that the devil attempted to sneak past Him.

There is no other weapon that would have defeated the devil then, nor is there any other weapon that will defeat him now.  The Word, is the sword that the Father has given us.  It is well able to defeat the enemy but you have to know how to wield it.  Each time the devil threw a temptation at Christ, Jesus countered that temptation with, “It is written.”  It is a good thing, then, that Jesus knew the Word.  He used the Word itself, not just his knowledge of the Word, to combat the devil.  Jesus did not rely on His own strength, His own knowledge or His own wit to defeat the devil.  No, He used the Word of God.  He did not argue with the devil.  He just quoted the scripture to him.

Today’s passage brings us a very important message.  If we are to defeat the devil and his minions we must first give attention to the Word.  If you don’t study the Word then you are unarmed and you really don’t want to fight the enemy unarmed.  Further, we need to understand that Jesus did not fight with or argue with the devil.  He did not rely on His position as the Son of God.  He was a man and in all ways tempted as are we and he had to resist the devil with the same tools that are available to us.  He simply quoted the Word to the devil.  He did not enter into a debate with him.  Jesus made the Word of God the final authority and the wielding of that Word defeated the devil.  We must all learn to do this too.  Read the Bible.  Arm yourself with the living sword of the Spirit.  Then when the devil gets in your face, just start quoting scripture.  You will see for yourself that the devil cannot stand up to the Word.  He will have to flee from you just like he did from Jesus.

 

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Impartation

On November 21, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

James 2: 21

Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls.

Dr. Jim Richards of Impact Ministries teaches the ultimate expression of Christianity is putting off the old person and receiving the new one Christ created for us. He calls this the Ultimate Put Off / Put On experience. That concept is exactly what is expressed in today’s verse. Put off your old self with all of its flaws, weaknesses and brokenness and receive Jesus, the Word, implanted into your very soul.

These ideas touch on the very core purposes of my ministry as well. You will have noticed that I frequently encourage your participation with the Word of God. My hope and prayer for you is that you have a personal encounter with the Lord. We all need his touch. I know if I continue to encourage you in the Word and show you how important it is to Jesus, the chance of you having a rendezvous with Jesus increases. James taught in this verse the implanted Word can save your soul. Mountains of theology can be built on that one brief statement. I wish for you to live an outrageously abundant life. Jesus came so that you could. I want miracles, health, wealth, beauty, peace, ease and glory flowing through your daily existence. The best way I know to facilitate that kind of overflow in your life is to impart the Word of God to you.

I wish to encourage you today. I realize you are busy and at times overwhelmed. Allow me and the ministry Jesus gave me to help you. Read the Word of the Day EVERY Day. If you do not have time to read my commentary, okay. Just read the Bible verse. I am sending you life because I send you the Word of God. I send you a bit of Jesus every morning since he is the Word. There is a huge revelation in that last statement. Even if that is all of the Word you get each day, at least you have some Word implanted in your soul and the implanted Word is seed which will germinate. Receive it, plant it and let it grow within you. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

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Abiding with Jesus

On November 17, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 15: 4

Abide in Me.

We know that we supposed to abide in Jesus, and we accept the idea fairly easily. However, how do you abide in him?

One of the easiest ways I know to abide in Jesus is to meditate on his Word. Meditation is dwelling mentally and spiritually with Jesus. Some of us were raised with the idea that meditation was a “new age” practice and thus forbidden to us. Well, it is only new age if you consider the Old Testament times “new age.” The first mention of meditation is in Genesis. Joshua 1: 8 records the advice God gave Joshua as he was about to take over leadership of the nation of Israel from Moses. It reads, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.” Since this is the advice God gave Joshua, it must be good advice for us too.

Jesus is the Word (John 1: 1,14). What better way to abide in Jesus than to abide in the Word? As you ponder the Word of God, you are also effectively searching the heart of God. As you dwell on those words and thoughts, your heart and mind dwells in Jesus.

Sometimes we make Christian Theology way too hard. Christianity is really as simple as hanging out with Jesus. As we dwell with him he becomes our friend, then our best friend and finally the love of our lives. If you want to be a friend of God and a close friend to Jesus, then hang out in The Word. You will find Father, Son and Holy Spirit there and have fun at the same time.

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Believers?

On August 5, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 107: 6

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses.

As the infamous Joan Rivers used to say, “Can we talk?” Between you and me, we are distressed from time to time, are we not? You can be honest with me. I know that you, like me, hurt and are troubled. We keep a brave face on but truly there are times we just have nothing left to give anyone. Those we have tried to help, those we have prayed for are the very authors of our distress. They take our obedience to our Lord and abuse us with it.

 
Do you think that our mothers and fathers of the faith did not also feel as we do; did not suffer the same severe doubt, sorrow and anguish that we do? Sure they did, so how did they become giants of faith and loyal to the Father?
Sooner or later we all have to make a decision. We have to choose whether or not we are going to believe God or not. Even more significantly, are we going to believe the Word? If I cannot believe the Word, if I have not made a solid decision to believe what it says then where shall I go for comfort? As for me, I have decided that God is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23: 19). Has He said it and will He not do it?

Today’s verse says that they cried out to the Lord and He delivered them. So, do we believe this or do we not? Do we believe that if we cry out to the Lord He will deliver us? Are we believers or not?

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The Bread

On July 13, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 6: 11

Give us this day our daily bread.
I had the opportunity on Sunday to hear Pastor Wayne Anderson of Idaho speak on his most recent book, Change the World with Prayer. One of the messages he brought to us was Jesus’ teaching on prayer which is found in what we commonly call the Lord’s Prayer. I was very much struck by Anderson’s point about this one little, short verse having the word “day”, or a derivative, in it twice. As he discussed it I was reminded of how the manna that God provided from heaven to the Israelites would spoil after one day. that really got me thinking.
God promised to provide for the Israelites daily. The fact that this is a daily event is an important point. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction’” (Exodus 16: 4). The Israelites were specifically precluded from collecting two or three days of manna. They were supposed to take only enough for each person for one day and then trust God for the bread for the other days. That is not our way, is it? The ground was literally littered with manna but God said to gather only a day’s worth and not to keep any of it for the next day. It would be normal for us to want to collect enough for several days but God said “Let’s see if they will follow my directions.” “But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul” (Exodus 16: 20).
Overnight the manna that people saved became inedible. Years later Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread. Yesterday’s bread won’t feed you today. It was for yesterday. It was good food for yesterday but you need today’s bread for today. Thousands of years ago as God tried to get the Israelites to trust Him day to day for their provision He was also laying down a spiritual principle that Jesus picked up and attempted to instill in his followers, including us. So this is Jesus’ word to us that we need to feed daily on the bread which God provides for us. But what does this really mean? Is this spiritual mumbo jumbo or does Jesus mean this literally? What do you think Jesus is trying to get us to do about daily bread? 
 
“Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst” (John 6: 30 – 35).
I believe Jesus is teaching us that we need to partake of him daily. How do you do that, you may ask. My answer is John 1: 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the incarnate Word of God so to partake of him we partake of the Word of God. But wait, there is more. Blindly reading the Bible is not what I am talking about. A heathen could sit all day and read the Bible but never partake of Jesus. Our consumption of the Word is a meditative, contemplative, spiritual ingesting of the person of Jesus Christ as he is found in God’s Word. There is, to my way of thinking, a big difference between “The Bible” and “The Word” but I will leave that to you to figure out.
At the end of the day I think Jesus is telling us that God has provided for us just as He did for the Israelites. Our manna is the living word. Jesus seems to be teaching us that we must feed on it daily. Yesterday’s manna is no good for today. It met yesterday’s need but today is a new day and we need fresh bread. I promise that Jesus is fresh and appropriate to today’s need.

One last comment, I only gave you today an excerpt of what Jesus said about being the bread of life. I strongly recommend that you read the entire sixth chapter of John. I think it will be a blessing and definitely food for thought.

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Building the Foundation

On June 29, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 40: 8

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.
What is your life and your faith based upon? As I observe people and religions I find it interesting to notice what underpins people’s lives and faith systems. When we construct buildings we certainly want the under girding to be very strong indeed. Yet with our lives we do not always give the same consideration. Surely, we all want our lives to be founded on that which is strong and true. The Bible teaches us in Ephesians 6: 14 to gird ourselves with truth. John 17: 17 says “Thy word is truth.” So, putting those together would direct us to under gird ourselves with God’s word. In other words, if we build our houses, our lives, on the firm foundation of God’s word, then we are building our lives on a platform of strength and stability. This is the foundation which stands forever, the Word of God. We need something of strength and durability to stand on and that is the Word of God.

I know there are many people who criticize the Bible or question its validity but this is what I have noticed. Many who make those comments have not spent much time with it. They have read very little of it and are really just commenting on what they have heard about it from someone else. Secondly, those who actually have spent time with the Word yet who do not revere it, rarely have anything substantial to supplant its use. They seem to have nebulous philosophies to which they loosely refer. That is fine. We all have to choose our own path in life but I say build your house on the rock and you will fare well in the storm (Luke 6: 48). The Bible works. It has been working for thousands of years. Its truths are infallible and the word of our God stands forever.

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Power and Might

On April 15, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Daniel 11: 32

And by smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know God will display strength and take action.

God is not raising up a generation of weaklings. He has called us in strength and in the glory of his dear son. There will come those who will lead the weak spirited away. He will trick them by the eloquence of his speech but those who know the Word of God will recognize the lies. 

Jesus was tried by the tempter (See Matthew 4: 1 – 11). He tried to trick Jesus too but Jesus knew the Word. He could not be led astray. He defeated the devil’s scheme’s then and ever since. We learn from Daniel that because we are called according to Jesus’ victory, we too can display strength and we can take action.

Do not be fooled by those who come to you in smoothness of speech. Check their fruit. Are they demonstrating Galatians 5: 22 fruit? If not, step away. You are not required to be friends with everyone; you are only required to love them. Secondly, prepare yourself now for the trickster. We already know he is waiting like a prowling lion, just looking for someone he can devour (1 Peter 5: 8). Feed on the Word daily so that you will recognize truth from the lie and can protect yourself and your family. Adam and Eve didn’t abide in the Word and they were deceived. Look where that brought us all.

Be strong in the might of the Lord and in the power of His Word.

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